Fun with eBay Listings...

[Kathryn Klos]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120168523697

Rather than trying to imagine the physical proportions of the humanoid who might have used this item to paddle a canoe, one might consider that it never was a canoe paddle... and maybe the seller should guess again.

Could it be

(a) A seventeenth century fraternity hazing device...

(b) An early American classroom disciplinary object...

(c) A relic of the days when laundry was boiled over a fire and a non-heat-conducting-object was needed to stir the dirty duds... ?

 

[Greg Nolan]

flat blade, short handle

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and owlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

or -- maybe a pizza peal!

 

[Dave Wermuth]

I think I know.

I have a number of similar implements in my museum of child abuse. All donated. that's my guess.

 

[Kathryn Klos]

The listing was retracted... methinks more than one person suggested it wasn't a canoe paddle!

 

[Daniel Day]

Quite a sticky wicket you have there. I can't get a feel for the length, but it looks like a cricket bat. Homemade perhaps.